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Wookies are up by a fairly large margin in this week's LucasArts poll, asking readers "Which of the following is your favorite Star Wars race?" This is very good news not only because Wookies rule, but also because I voted for them.

There is an interview with Jesse Spears, of Westlake Interactive; the company chosen by LucasArts to port EMI to the Mac.The interview is on Mac Central Online and they talk to Jesse about his background and about his impressions on what challenges exist in the early stages of Escape From Monkey Island's development.

Lucas Arts has officially announced their new persistent online game, Star Wars Glaxies to be developed by Verant Interactive. Check the Lucasarts press release for more details.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- November 29, 2000 -- LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC today announced Star Wars Galaxies as the formal series brand name for their massively multiplayer online role-playing games. On November 30 LucasArts, in conjunction with Sony Online Entertainment Inc., will launch the game's official information site, www.starwarsgalaxies.com.

Just Adventure has finally reviewed Escape from Monkey Island (here) and given it some quite unfavorable markings. I personally take their reviews with a grain of salt (they gave Monkey Island 2 a C+!!!!!), so make what you will of their grade.

"And the answer is Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4, Rocky 4, Jaws 4, and Escape from Monkey Island."

Karnak glares at the source of the echo, "May a plague of locusts feast upon your wooden leg." He tears open and blows into the end of the envelope. After removing and unfolding the sheet of paper inside, he then reads aloud, "And the question is, name four sequels that should be forgotten."

If you do not find the above to be riotously funny, then you surely will want to avoid a game in which I found the title to be eerily prophetic, for the longer I played, the more I could not wait to Escape from Monkey Island.

Gamecenter have a really interesting article and interview with Simon Jeffrey. Many LEC fans who were concerned with the comments about PC's being limited may like to read...

GC: A lot of people tried to read into your statement last week about Obi-Wan's cancellation. What did you mean by "The expected breadth and scope of the Obi-Wan project could not be met given limitations of technology"?

S. J.: I think a lot of people read into that that we were saying that the PC wasn't high-end enough to deliver what the game was. That is not what we were saying; maybe in hindsight we could have been clearer in our language there.

What we were saying was that there are all these people who want to play this game. The game as it was heading would have worked very nicely on a high-end PC that was fully loaded--but the majority of PCs out there, especially outside of the domestic marketplace, would have struggled to run the game. Again, that would have been a disappointment to a lot of people. The spec was high-end, the multiplayer requirement was high-end--and we really wanted to be able to focus on the gameplay, rather than diluting our ability to do that because we needed to support the variety of machines running from a 233 to a P1000, or whatever. So that is really what that message meant, rather than saying that the PC isn't good enough. We certainly don't believe that.

The great site Escapemi.com has reported that Larry Ahern has left LucasArts. whether this is true is yet to be confirmed but these rumours are normally true.

Larry Ahern was the co project leader for 1997's Curse of Monkey Island as well as working on a host of other projects through the years.LucasArts has lost a great number of their higher profile workers over the last few years, and just when you thought no more would leave; another one bites the dust.

Guybrush ThreepwoodGuybrush starts off EFMI running a legal errand for his wife, Elaine Marley. However, it soon develops into a devious plot involving Australians, monkeys and the Ultimate Insult. Plus he tends to get beaten up by Mrs. Threepwood. A lot.

There is now a summary of almost all the characters in the game, a great guide to all the crazy character creations from the minds of Mike and Sean.

There is a review of Escape From Monkey Island over at Gamedata.com they also have posted a walkthrough and solutions to all puzzles (monkey kombat etc) in French. Useful for our European buddies (usefull country for Beer runs eh Brits?)I'm going to quote it now.. but I have no idea what it means:

Thanks for all the bugs reported. however only a few of you are filling in the steps to reproduce field. this field basically means. 'how do you get this bug to occur?' and is vital for LucasArts to be able to reproduce your bug. It should contain info lke

The Lucasfilm Star Wars site has posted some very interesting video. They have posted 17 (yes, seventeen) videos revealing things about episode 2. The video's are hosted by none other then Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks). Check it out!

As Jamesh mentioned a couple of days ago, a petition for Obi-Wan PC to return is up at Petition Online. If you'd like to sign the petition, click here! Special thanks to the topic in #Monkey-Island on DALnet. :)

It seems that the page we designed to report bugs, has bugs! Firstly, my coding was a little sloppy, causing the title image to show above every bug report. I fixed that, but unfortunately, huge images are stretching the tables.

I'm taking the EMI bug section offline for a short while - don't worry, it'll be back before you know it!

UPDATE!!:

I've fixed the page now, and the EMI Bug Reporter is back. For now, we simply have to ask you - please ensure any screenshots you upload to the bug page are less than 400 pixels in width otherwise it skews up the page. We'll have a better fix for this problem when DJG gets back from Thanksgiving break (he has so many more ideas than me). Thanks for your understanding! Many happy bug reports!

UPDATE!! by DJG

Hey all, well, right now you can pretty much upload whatever size image you want, but it's only going to be displayed as a 400x300 image so keep that in mind. And thanks to everyone who submitted bugs! Hopefully there's someone out there you can lend a hand.

Right, we were getting so many bug reports sent to us, we set up this bug reporter for Escape From Monkey Island. The patch is now released so we hope there wont be too many, but those we get reported will be sent to LucasArts.

to submit a bug go hereOr you can browse the bugs already submitted here. This lovely reporter made by DJG, designed by me, and updated by Jamesh

A mini site has been set up by Ben, webmaster of The Kickstand. The site is to help people with a well publicised part of EMI - Monkey Kombat.There is a quiz thats needs to be passed before you can gain entry, to ensure only folks who've reached that far in the game can peek at the site.A song entitled Monkey Kombat is also available from this site, or if not, The Kickstand.

Demolition has now officially arrived for Dreamcast. Some important things to note are that the Dreamcast version sports improved graphics, and up to 4 players, where the Playstation version only supports 2.

In its quest to apply the "Star Wars" license to as many genres as possible (where's my Amidala Puzzle Pack?), Lucasarts has shipped the PlayStation and Dreamcast versions of Star Wars: Demolition to retail. The catch? It's not too shabby, at all.

Sadly, development on the much anticipated sequel to Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan, has been put on quite permanent hold. LucasArts had this to say:

"Following an extensive review of the project and a great deal of deliberation, LucasArts Entertainment Company has ceased development of Star Wars: Obi-Wan for the PC. The expected breadth and scope of the Obi-Wan project could not be met given limitations of technology and the company's recently heightened quality standards. LucasArts is now planning to bring the game and its assets to a next-generation console platform. Further announcements will be made in this regard next year.

LucasArts remains fully committed to developing games for the PC platform, as evidenced by its current development alliances with Verant Interactive, BioWare Corporation, and other soon to be announced projects.

We wish to thank our fans for their continued support through this process and assure them that our number one goal is to provide them with high quality, fun games."

I'm sure petitions will be up by tomorrow [the LEC community is a big group of petitioners - maybe Al or George could use them =)].

So, Mixnmojo hopes that Manny Cavalera will give Obi-Wan a good ride to the ninth underworld.

Escape From Monkey Island has debuted on the Top Twenty list as number 17 on NPD TRSTS Reports for the week of 11/5/00 courtesy of GameWeek.com. Very impressive for such a 'niche' market, eh? Hopefully this will send a message to LEC, we want more Adventures!

Narrative didnt know that I planned to launch this article today.. so continuing on from his blurbings (see below) may I present to you:The Old Days Part 6: The ScummBarThis final part of the old days feature takes a look at the site that started it all, with an interview with Skyfox and some great old logos. a must for both old and new visitors of The Scumm Bar. This article was meant to be written to celebrate The Scumm Bar's 4th year online - I was a little late, So Happy Belated Birthday!

TheScummBar.Com hasn't been in the news for a while here at Mixnmojo, although it deserves it!With the recent buzz of EMI news and features, I recommend you visit the TheScummBar.Com as regularly as you visit Mixnmojo for your Monkey Island news as their is a lot of features, news and content which aren't mentioned or featured on Mixnmojo.Amongst which is an exclusive interview with Dominic "Guybrush" Threepwood. Before you dismiss another samey LEC interview, don't bat your eye-lid just yet... this is an interview with a difference!Also Note- Dom has a Gromit (Ala Nick Park's "Wallace & Gromit") stuffed toy! Hehe, well that made me chuffed anyway...

During my lunchbreak today I went into my local WHSmiths and bought my copy of the new release of Star Wars- The Special Edition Trilogy. For those of you who don't know, the latest release (in shops this week) contains a special 10 minute sneak-peek exclusive behind the scenes look at the filming of Episode II.Don't get excited, you won't see a Episode II trailer or actual footage but you get to see the Lars Homestead set and lots of behind the scenes footage and interviews. In the interviews, Lucas explains the rough plot of the new episode and how it fits in to the Saga, Anthony Daniels commenting on his role of C3P0 and two other interviews with the Australian actors who will play Owen & Beru Lars.If you don't have the trilogy boxset on video yet, buy it now with the Episode II feature.It Definetly deserves a place on your Christmas list.

LucasFans has posted a litttle program enititled "The Dig Music player". The program was sent to LF by "Lonely Hawk", it works on Win32 and playsmusic directly from The Dig game CD. This proggy Can't extract it though.

Demolition for Playstation has been out in stores several days now, and to go along with its release, here is a review from psx.ign.com.

Star Wars: Demolition is actually a pretty good car combat game... it actually corrects some of the serious problems I had with Vigilante 8: Second Offense. It's not perfect, but there's never been a perfect vehicular combat game, and Demolition does more things right than it gets wrong.

Over the past couple days Lucas Arts has updated their site with a new product page of 'Battle for Naboo' with brand spankin new concept art, a new Flash site for 'Demolition', new poll, and a new 'Classic Screenshot of the Week' from Outlaws.

In time for the British release of Escape from Monkey Island tomorrow, the Mixnmojo staff have put together a "first impressions" review feature of their initial thoughts after playing the first half of the game. Also checkout several favorite hand-picked screenshots taken from the full version. To view the feature, just click on the new feature button at the top or follow this link.

Of course, since this is a review there are some "spoiler screens" which can only be seen if you chose to. There aren't spoilers in the impressions themselves, of course!

Right for some time I've had a CD copy of LOOM sitting here, waiting to be used as a prize in a contest. But we can't think of any decent contests right now (actually thats a lie we have a much bigger one planned). We need you lot to come up with a competition that we can run, the winner of which gets LOOM. Something involving retro LEC, something creative! Go readers go, send me ideas! The winner of this mini find-a-contest-contest will get.. an email address @ mixnmojo.com and thescummbar.com (when we resolve its DNS).

according to The Scumm BarThe Norwegian release date of EMI has unfortunately been slightly delayed. Escape from Monkey Island, which was originally set to be released tomorrow - 17th of November, has now been delayed until the 22nd of November.

UK release still set for tomorrow.. I even saw it in town today. Same box etc as the US version.

Exciting news is that Bill Tiller, a fantastic artist who worked on the Dig and CMI, has Posted a message on the SCRAMM forum asking for an decent programmer to assist him in making a 2d Adventure game. If you think you've got what it takes: go and see if you can help!

If you haven't got EMI yet and want it, I suggest buying it from Amazon.com. where you get EMI and Grim Fandango together for for $39.99. (US Only) Amazon UK hasn't got a deal as great, but is selling it pre-order for ?27.99.

Okay, a 3-part story, hosted by Starwars.com, Wizards of the Coast, and now LucasArts has reached it's conclusion."The Starfighter Trap," by Steve Miller, is a story I've only just come across, but seems to be quite a good little SW space combat story. If you like reading such things, then go check it out!

The ScummBar, still on its old URL, (my fault.. kinda) has re-opened its fan work section, and, lo and behold, a day later they recieve some amazing pieces of fan art. Images of the first two games, in a CMI style. Go and check them out.

Looks like I got a bit carried away with my birthday and EMI to post any news. Okay, here goes:

The release date rumor seems to have originated form PCGamer UK, and nobody else seems to agree, so I'm still assuming the 17th is the time to celebrate. This month's PCGamer UK, by the way, has a copy of the EMI demo on, and reviews the game inside. They rated it 93% --a great score.

"This is the title to remind everyone just how good adventure gaming can be.""Huge, hilarious, and original""This is the funniest game you'll ever play.""Adventure Gaming at it's peak""This is why the adventure genre was invented"

Another EMI review is up at Gamecenter who give the game a perfect score of 10/10. The review is 3 pages of praise, with a history of the game included.

I have recieved a few mails from worried Britains who have heard rumours that the UK release date for EMI has been pushed back to the 24th. I can do nothing to confirm or deny this rumour at the moment, but I will investigate the matter futher.

I spent some time with part of EMI now and these 'in-jokes' are a continuation of the ones posted yesterday. Highlight the text to read, click the pics to see! Fiddle with the file-retrieval system in dead eye Dave's shop to find appearances from EMI producers, Star Wars characters and The Prophet from DUNE.

The actor responsible for the lead character's voice in Full Throttle, is ill. Roy Conrad played Ben in one of the greatest games ever, and it has been discovered that he is resting at home, ill with cancer.

Swordmaster, of LucasFans fame, has set up this page where you may offer support by writing any fan mail you have to Roy. I'm sure he'd love to hear from all you Throttle fans, so get writing!

Can i request something of you lot! If you are going to send us screens from EMI or spoilers etc, can u write SPOILER in the email title, and which act its from! eg:EMI SPOILER Act3 - easter egg.many thanks -mixnmojo team.

Another Interview with Dominic Armato has cropped up at Escapemi.com. Domic Armato is the talented voice actor of Guybrush Threepwood (as everybody knows by now.. i wonder how many time i've explainded that..?) in the recently released Escape from Monkey Island - and Curse of MI. The theme of the interview is aimed to capture the working enviroment of an actor working with an adventure company.

EMI.com: Have you ever suggested changing something Guybrush says?

Dom: On a few occasions, but in general we try to stick to the script as much as possible. It's a real pain for the folks on the other end when we arbitrarily change lines, so we'll only do alternates if some line just really isn't working for some reason, or if we have a particularly brilliant inspiration. For the most part, though, this isn't an issue. LEC's writers tend to be awfully good :-)

Ok we wont be posting all the eggs here, (as there are many many many!) just a few, and this one is one of those few. as before highlight the text below for a description - and the picture will reveal all![This egg is in Act 1]

using the correct code on the File Retrieval system in the Palace of Prostheses,brings up Mannuell J Calavera 's (GrimFandango star) file!

Thanks goes to TheAmazingXemo for that in-jokeUpdate: I've actualy found a whole bunch more of these, and so has ZeroXcape, ill post them asap

Another new site joins us officially today! Imuse Island opens it's doors at mixnmojo. This great site is named after the LEC Music system (imuse) and the site is a database for music from their games. But thats not all: The site offers news features and feedback, a general LEC music fan community!

No, thats not a typo... you can now buy what looks basically like a real lightsaber!The website Amazing1.Com is selling lightsabers based on real plasma technology.The sabers are harmless, but, they are fragile due to there nature (glass tubes) so you can't beat your friends around the head with it.You can get them in 4 different colours- Purple, Padawan Blue, Sith Red and Jedi Master Green and at varying heights (16,24,36 inches).I know what I want for Christmas ;-)

There are a few new reviews about the place, the first at videogamerguy.20m.com. This review is short and sweet, it uses no new screenshots or mention of any new scenes, so you can be sure to read it without spoiling the game. VideoGamerGuy rated EMI a 9/10, controls and graphics letting the game down. (I bet they weren't using FSAA, cause the graphics are sooooo nice with that on)

The 2nd review is from IGN, this review seems to be slightly longer, and may have a few screenshots that players might not want to see, although they are all from the 1st act. IGN rate EMI 8.7 /10

What EFMI ends up feeling like is a highly honed episode of your favorite show. Old characters reappear, relationships are fleshed out in even more humorous detail, and old locations are brought back for your joy and giggles. While the glitches are definitely frustrating, and the polish is lacking at times, overall this is a welcome return to the eeps and oops of your childhood.

Our reviews will be up soon, I'm going to get each member of our team to review it, so you'll get a wider range of opinions. Soon come!

The Unofficial Sam & Max Website has returned from its 2 month temporary death with a large update including new information on the Surfin the Highway comic collection and some old promotional material and products from both Sam & Max Hit the Road and the animated Fox Kids cartoon. Take a look.

Every year, all the regulars from #monkey-island have a small poll type thing to answer questions to things like: "Who is the funniest person on #mi?" and "Who from #monkey-island is most likely to rule the world?" (All things of which I never win :P). Anyway, this years site is located here so go and send in your opinions! - one request though for this site - get a form set up! :)

Nicholas DePetrillo was kind enough to send us the very first reported EMI easter egg (yes it does involve starwars). As it is a spoiler you'll have to highlight the text below to get a description:This pic taken in the swamp has an Xwing in the background! cool huh?I love this egg:) click on the image below to see the pic for yourself

News reaches me that Amazon.co.uk are now taking UK orders of the game. Priced at ?27.99 you can pre-order it now and get it on the day of release (17th Nov) The game is high in their sales charts right now, push it higher, show LEC How much we love this game!

Right, before i get on with trauling through my mailbox to answer questions and post news about Monkey Island, i thought id share with you this fabulous shot of Bombad Racing sent to us by LucasLearning.In this shot Queen Amidala speeds along on a planet that looks as though it may be Coruscant (the home of the Jedi council) But i could be wrong.Think you know better? leave a comment!

LucasArts.com has now "officially" announced that EMI is shipping, and available in stores! Apparently in celebration of EMI's launch the monkeys came out in full and overtook the main page of the site (Along with their vines. You can't have monkeys without vines you know!). Anyway go take a look!

LucasArts announced the winner of their "Create a Monkey Island Skin for Windows Media Player" contest today. Who won, you ask? Why, our very own Andrew "telarium" Langley, member of Mixnmojo writing staff and webmaster of HighLand Productions. Congratulations, Andrew! You can download his skin at the LucasArts EMI page, or you can just take a look at it by clicking the image to the left of this post.

In your opinion, what makes Monkey Island 4 this year's best adventure game?Monkeys. Monkeys are funnier than elves in tights. Of course, being the ONLY adventure game might actually be the clincher...

Daily Radar has posted their review of EMI, giving it a "Direct Hit" rating (which means they thought it was very good). Here's a random bit from the review:

It helps that Threepwood has a horde of amusing replies when you try to perform an activity without success. Indeed, we spent a fair amount of time deliberately choosing the wrong conversational reply or attempting to use objects where they couldn't possibly work just to hear the comments.

LucasFilm has announced plans to up a brand new community website for Star Wars Fan films.The website, Www.StarWars.AtomFilms.Com will recognize the professional (and sometimes humourous) fanfilms community.The official LucasFilm press release comments:

AtomFilms and starwars.com are joining forces to launch The Star Wars Fan Film Network - giving fans an official online outlet to share their creativity and have fun with Star Wars. AtomFilms is now accepting submissions of Star Wars parodies and documentaries for consideration to showcase on the site. The Star Wars Fan Film Network will launch later this year as a premier spotlight within www.atomfilms.com.

So it's time to celebrate the release, and do we have anything exciting to post in good cheer? no. We will however have a a BIG feature on EMI coming soon, you'll love it. Ill try and get that up by the british release date, which is obviously a far more important date... =P

Ok well i was lying about not having anything to add, we have added an additional forum. The MI posting board, EMI edition, is where you will post about EMI. any messages in the non EMI edition board that we consider to be spoilers will be removed immediatley.DO NOT SPOIL THE GAME FOR OTHERS. Thanks

It is a time for rejoicing in North America. The fourth installment of the monkey island series is in stores exclusively in north america today. Although I've only had it for a few hours, I've got to say it's great, even better than I thought it would be. In the next little bit you'll be hearing a lot about EMI, but don't give it away for the people that don't have it, or havn't beaten it. And for all those people that are stuck, or just are to lazy to figure out the puzzles, I'll make a walkthrough in the next few weeks.

Escape from Monkey Island is released in the US tommorow morning, which is exciting for some and annoying for others. Anyway, dont for get that you can order EMI online at Amazon and may all of those lucky enough to play this game tomorrow..... feel lucky.

They say a picture can speak a thousand words.So follow this link and let the pictures speak for themselves.TheForce.Net has scanned photos from Episode II as featured in the French Official LucasFilm Star Wars magazine.There is about 20 in all, and they are definetly worth looking at!

Today we welcome another new site, this one of original content and idea. The LucasArts Voice Actors Archive opens its doors with details on a very large amount of voice actors who have worked on LEC games. You can search by name or by game, and you'll probably learn some interesting trivia along the way. Welcome!

GamesDomain has posted what may be the first full EMI review (versus all the other ones we've seen which have been demo reviews or "previews," often of just select portions of the game). Here's what they say about EMI going 3D, for instance:

Fear not, however! LucasArts has done an outstanding job of retaining the original flavor of Monkey Island (mmmm? the taste of monkeys!). The incorporation of 3D graphics enhances gameplay without becoming obtrusive. There's no way you'll mistake Escape from Monkey Island for a first person shooter. In fact, in many ways you won't even notice that it's in 3D as much of the screen remains a static, cartoon backdrop. The key difference graphically is that the characters' features, particularly in close-ups, are rendered exquisitely in 3D.

If spoilers aren't your thing I'd recommend passing this review up, as it contains plot points and jokes galore, but if you're still on the fence about purchasing EMI you should definately take a look.

The New Episode II select picture has been updated. There's no proof so far but the forums and community are buzzing on what the latest select image may be. The community, and also my opinion, is that this is the child actor Daniel Logan as the young Boba Fett, sitting in the cockpit of Slave 1 at his father Jango Fett and Obi-Wan. What do you think? Feel free post opinions or comments.

Brian Blessed, the famous English actor whose credits include BlackAdder to Richard III, accidently let slip to a eager Star Wars fan that his character from Episode I, Boss Nass, will be returning to Episode II and that his character will have the first line of the movie.He also said that he will start the film with the word "War" which is ironic considering Episode I finished with Boss Nass getting the last scripted word of "Peace".Also revealing one of his lines from the film recentley was Temuera Morrison. Morrison, who will play Jango Fett- the father of Boba Fett who will become the genetic template for the Stormtrooper clones in Episode II, told the Melborne magazine "Green Guide" that he will say the line "I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.". We also mentioned that he will have a space combat scene with Obi-Wan through an asteroid field.All very interesting stuff!

You may have noticed some 'pop-up' advertisements recently. We do not tolerate these, and I'm doing my best to ban them. I myself have never seen one, so I dont know what that's all about, but they will be gone soon!

Not exactly LucasArts related, but for anyone who is interested in a bit of community news, my personal site has some photos from my trip down to London to meet up with Jamesh & Spaff for ECTS 2000 in early September.

The Official Star Wars website has a new On Location report from Episode II filming is a report with no other then the big cheese himself, George Lucas. He doesn't give away much but it's still interesting little interview.Even more interesting is a short report, from Lucas's right-hand man, Rick MaCallum. The report, Serious Post Production also has a photo of Ewan McGregor as the new look Obi-Wan Kenodi sporting the new Alec Guiness style beard.

The Lucasarts site has had it's halloween decorations taken down, and they've replaced it with some nice mouseover images at the top. A new image also completes the nice top area. You can view the changes at www.lucasarts.com.